Production printing systems generally include a high-speed printer used for volume printing, and may be capable of printing 100 pages per minute or more. Production printing systems are often continuous-form printers that print on paper or other printable media. Automated Document Factories (ADF's) provide functionality that enhances the performance of production printing systems by providing functional modules that govern the printing process. For example, an ADF may functionally address: input constraints; data transformation; delivery preparation of documents; and control/reporting of the production printing system itself. Because of this enhanced functionality, ADF's are preferred for numerous high-volume printing applications including mass-mail printing and newspaper printing.
A host system produces print jobs to be processed by an ADF for printing. A print job typically contains a plurality of logical documents to be printed. The host system transfers print jobs to the ADF and the ADF adds the print jobs to a print queue. Each print job includes an instruction defining how its documents are treated after printing. For example, the instruction could indicate that the printed documents should be stacked, sorted, stapled, cut, bound, or inserted into an envelope by machinery operable to perform these functions. These instructions are hereinafter referred to as “post-print instructions.”
Users of an ADF may desire to provide special post-print instructions for specific documents in print jobs. For example, billing statements for high-value customers may be inserted into decorative envelopes, while billing statements for regular customers may be inserted into plain envelopes. However, post-print instructions are tied to print jobs and not to specific documents within print jobs. Therefore, requesting that specific documents of a print job be treated differently during post-print handling remains a problem. Additionally, when a print job has already been received by the ADF it may be difficult to alter post-print instructions because the ADF may already be processing the documents for printing. Thus, if a print job does not already have appropriate post-print instructions before it is sent to an ADF, its documents may be improperly treated during post-printing. This in turn may result in the printed documents being thrown away and re-printed after detection of the error, which wastes time and resources.